By Terry Carter, RTT, CHyp
January’s first day typically brings out our highly optimistic, goal-setting personality. That part of us has high hopes and takes on new challenges with a smile because we know anything is possible, right?
Now that many of us are setting those sizable goals, let me make a few suggestions to help your 2022 include more victories. After all, achieving, finding true happiness and reaching your highest personal, academic or athletic goals doesn’t happen without new effort. It takes work and I don’t mean just physical effort. Every action requires a thought and a motivation to propel that thought into consistent action.
Who can do better in 2022? Absolutely everyone can win the mindset and physical battles that create victories.
As a writer, I study and interact with champions in sports, business and beyond. My training in psychology and therapy allow me to see and address root cause issues holding people back. Goal-setting is imperative to achieving at a higher level, especially if you are going beyond your comfort zone. I’ve never met a high achiever who didn’t prepare extensively to succeed.
Wise coaches, mentors and leaders will tell you that a challenging, worthwhile goal should require certain characteristics that, based on my experience, I describe here as “Must Haves” for major and long-term goals. Please test and verify any of these statements for yourself.
TANGIBLE TOP 5 LIST
Here is the Tangible Top 5 for Top Guns if you are serious about high achievement in 2022:
- You must have a strong, emotional desire and unwavering commitment to reach that goal. Many motivators don’t truly fit that description, and they can produce quality, short-term results. But long-term or lifetime quality tends to fade quickly without a heart-based drive.
- You must be willing to sacrifice and work consistently harder than ever before. You must grow into the person who demonstrates by authentic compassionate leadership, speech, actions and beliefs, that they cannot fail. Acting and becoming are vastly different.
- Mental training and resilience are just as important as the physical skills you learn. You must mentally claim the victory, reward and visualize yourself earning it despite all obstacles. The more time you invest in visualizing yourself as achieving your unprecedented goal with all five senses, the stronger your belief in yourself, your mission, and strategy will be in the real world.
- You must write down in explicit detail the goal, the work/repetition needed to achieve it. Also put in writing and visualize daily the rewards you will receive as you progress — and when you reach the bigger goals. You can help yourself accountable to sharing your goals with those you trust to encourage you. Without strong motivation, most people doubt or blame themselves at the first signs of difficulty. Then they often quit or self-sabotage their efforts.
- You must burn your figurative boats so you have no Plan B to fall back on when things get tough on the journey — and they will. Ask any state champion, innovator/inventor. No plan is flawless, so edits, updates and halftime adjustments are expected. To use a quick analogy: To win, you can’t leave the field and drive home during the competition, abandoning your team. Stand up and compete the best you can on the field. Even with an injury, I’ve witnessed athletes and parents win with broken bones, sprained ankles, battling on with a sling on an arm, or a bloody nose plugged and reducing oxygen levels.
I understand that more than half of all Americans signing up for a New Year’s Resolution gym membership quit on their dedicated goal and/or the membership before Jan. 15 — two weeks after they set that high goal. That’s only a few days away, isn’t it? And a gym membership could be prepaid for months in the future, but the customer just stops showing up.
It’s not uncommon because of underlying root causes and/or training we receive. So how do we crush self-sabotage?
The conscious mind is remarkable, analytical, educated and comprehends the opportunity in goal setting and achievement. However it is also subject to stress and anxiety. That causes more anxiety, nervousness, caution, fear, doubt and other emotions that trip us up and make us feel that winning at any level — getting a date, passing a test, college scholarship, financial goals, making a friend — is out of reach. A lack of good results can make us feel that we are not good enough or it’s not available.
SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
The subconscious mind, however, is the transformative key difference between two equally talented, smart, qualified people reaching the new goal that demands total commitment, unrelenting effort, bravery, leadership and your highest level of achievement.
Believing earnestly and authentically that you can accomplish what others know is impossible for them — like winning back-to-back state championships in Texas high school football or earning an Olympic Gold Medal — separates the good from the great. It also separates the great from the Hall of Fame athletes and individuals. The subconscious mind holds our most core beliefs, and those can be updated if they hold us back — our creativity, true genius, intuition, unlimited creativity/problem-solving and passion are included in your subconscious mind.
Students, athletes, parents, executives and more can overcome limiting belief systems permanently — and that opens up a world of possibilities unseen previously. It is an inspiring moment when brilliance is realized.
By the way, this article isn’t just for athletes or coaches. The base principles also apply to goals we all set daily, but perhaps on a simpler level. For example, visualizing yourself waking up before your alarm goes off at 5 a.m. inspires a magical ability, especially in young athletes because they are anticipating a great, fun adventure.
Extreme fun and adventure motivate most of us because it’s different. I used this mental exercise as a child to get to golf, tennis, baseball tournaments early in the summers. Around Christmas, I used the same skill — anticipation — to be wide awake at sunrise so I could open my presents bright and early. How many parents have experienced that?
My background
Terry Carter graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a degree in journalism and psychology. He has worked as an editor, sports editor, photo editor in journalism and now writes and photographs for The Katy News. An entrepreneur, Carter began mentoring in 1998 when he moved his family back to Katy. In 2019 helping others inspired Carter to become certified as a Rapid Transformational Therapist and set up the website World Wellness Today to assist others in their personal growth.
Some call it attitude, others mindset, mentality or legacy. But the belief that you are capable, worthy of winning at the highest level in athletics, in academics and in life give some people and some teams an advantage. Self-confidence lifted the Paetow Panthers to their first state championship in December. And Katy has won the football state title nine times, and the Tigers are already visualizing a long playoff run in 2022. Photos by UDPhotos